Here are some more blogs from The Basics as they head around remote regions of Australia. These places are so remote there is little of any communication to the outside world, so we’ll have to forgive them for sending a week’s worth of blogs at once.
If, like me, you’re reading these with wide-eyed awe the more stories the better then.- Tim (from Undercover, not The Basics)
Kris - Saturday November 1, 2008
I have no idea how Nathan has survived for three years as a single guy in his 20s out in the Aboriginal Community of Ikuntji (Haasts Bluff). Today we witnessed some of the anguish that he must have gone through time and time again in this place that has no mobile reception, little internet, and is 250kms from any Western settlement.
It was a huge day - we'd played the big "homecoming" show with the Sunshine Reggae band in their home community, but things hadn't quite gone to plan. The first big rain of the season erupted from the sky and the musical gear which had already been set up outside had to be moved inside. Rounding up the community members as audience during and after a big rain proved to be a real task, but again we managed to get most people into the so-called "cinema" where we were playing.
For some reason, however, we only ended up playing five songs, Sunshine Reggae played five and then another band of young locals played five and we were meant to come back on for another lot, but then everyone left. I'm pretty sure people just thought it was over because the bands had already been on and Nathan disappeared for a little while and wasn't there to let people know what was happening, but it was too late.
So after packing up a little, we went to the residence of a couple who worked at the Arts Centre on community. There we witnessed the breakdown of a beautiful soul who had put three months of work into setting these gigs up. It might seem silly to city folk for whom gigs just come and go like five cent pieces, but for Nathan this was the nugget he'd been digging for and had somewhat crumbled in his hands.
Having gone to school with Nathan and known him for longer than anyone else there, about 15 years, it was upsetting for me to see him so down and crying openly to us all. He talked of being over the whole affair, and we encouraged him to take a break and re-evaluate. I'm pretty sure that's what he's going to do, but I also don't think he'll ever be able to leave these people because aside from this episode, I've never seen him more genuinely happy, even joyous, in all the time I've known him. Like one of his fellow workers said, "it's the quality of the victories that allow you to cope with the quantity of problems out here".
Tim - Sunday 2nd November
We awoke and packed up our goods and chattels and left Haast's Bluff. It was as dry and as dusty as we'd found it. We were going to see the boys from the Sunshine Band in Darwin, so there were no teary farewells this morning. Just a track, winding back to an old fashioned shack, etc.
We nearly skidded off the road on the gravel, but made it back easily on the bitumen in time for a beer by the pool in Alice. We had a an early night, thankful for our time 'out back', but definitely happy to see some water and a lawn. And beer.
Wally - Monday 3rd November
I’d never heard of Wycliffe Well before we drove into the roadhouse today. I did hear the word “aliens” bandied around this morning before we left Alice Springs, but I had no idea we were heading into one of Australia’s prime locations for sightings of UFOs...and shrines to massive toy gorillas as it turns out. I can’t vouch for the extra terrestrials but let me lead you through to the latter.
You only get things like this in the outback it seems. This peculiar combination of local history and tacky merchandising. It’s always good for a 15 minute stop on a long drive, but this place keeps us occupied for ages.
There are two green alien statues in a fenced off area near the petrol bowsers. At the bar they sell tea towels with aliens and UFO sighting information on them. The walls are covered with cutouts from astrology magazines and articles from local newspapers about sightings of flying saucers in the surrounding hills. Nothing quite prepares you for what’s in the back room though.
First of all, a big arrow entices you towards the “international doll collection”. It’s a glass cabinet built into a wall with a haphazard arrangement of...well, international dolls I guess. There doesn’t appear to be any special consideration in either choice or arrangement. I notice a Yoshi soft toy sitting happily beside a Baboushka, and a blow-up alien hanging beside a He-Man action figure. Remarkable! This must have taken years and many trips to a Chinese junk shop to throw together. Or more likely it represents the detritus of many and varied bloated tourist trips with the kids to all corners of the novelty-junk-obsessed U.S.A.
Un-pressing my face from the glass, I spin around and discover the centrepiece- an Oriental four-poster bed has been appropriated for a shrine to a gigantic gorilla soft toy. “Emperor of Wycliffe” the sign says. “Don’t touch any items on the bed” says another. It all has a peculiar logic. The kind that makes no sense at all, and would leave you entirely unsurprised if an old man in a superhero outfit burst into the room and screamed “bacon and eggs, barbecue sauce”!
I must be hungry for a hot breakfast, and I’m pondering that last possibility when Kris and Tim walk through towards the garden in the rear. “Hamish and Andy are broadcasting out the back”! What? It makes BreakfastMan seem almost tawdry in the unlikelyness stakes really.
We wander out and it’s true. The comedy duo are on their Caravan of Courage tour to Darwin and are broadcasting right now out of Wycliffe Well. After what we’ve seen inside, nothing much seems too surreal right now
Kris - Tuesday November 4
Much is and will always be made of the emotional stress of being away from loved ones when on tour. Much less is mentioned with reference to the physical strain.
Bands have a reputation for free living and loving, but when you are committed to someone, and I mean committed to not screwing around, then two months of abstinence from physical intimacy is significant.
I can't speak so much for Tim or Wally - albeit to say that Tim will be seeing his woman Marieke tomorrow night, and I have never witnessed Wally as demonstrating any real need for insinuated activities, so I can't say anything about that at all. For me however, and this might seem really base to alot of people, the hormones are definitely kicking in.
My situation is a complicated one which I won't be divulging here, but needless to say there's someone that I love and respect and it would be wrong on so many levels to just betray that for short-term satisfaction.
So without saying too much, being in this band right now for me - this day in particular - involves sitting on my hands alot, and closing my eyes just as much.
Tim - Wednesday 5th November
With the strains of Bryan Adam's 'Run to You' ringing through my mind, I drove to Darwin - Capital of the World. For this was the day I was to see my darling girlfriend. I've nearly been away for a month and I'm getting too old to go on missing loved ones. I've done enough longing in my days, but even so, the feeling of seeing her is always wonderful.
We drove up to the city and the boys checked in to the hotel. Later Kris drove me to the airport, where I met my darling and we then went back to her hotel for a happy rest.
Wally - Thursday 6th November
A day off in Darwin. So many possibilities. Well, they’ll have to wait for another day, because I’m locked in the hotel room bashing away at my lappy trying to write a grant for the Australia Council. The band’s cash flow hasn’t been too, um, certain, let’s say, for the last few weeks, and we’ve been brainstorming ways to get the funds together to release our new music in 2009.
The air conditioner isn’t really working properly. It’s just blowing lukewarm air into the room and there’s a sickly kind of humidity in here, a little like the sweaty sheets you peel away when you’ve been in bed with the flu. I could fantasise and romanticise the situation, pretend I’m a important foreign correspondent locked away in a dark room in the heart of the local conflict, transmitting vital information to the West’s media about the atrocities taking place just outside.
Whoa...maybe I really am going troppo.
Focus. Focus!
Kris - Friday 7th November
So. Much. Heat. So. Little. Strength.
The humidity is sapping me of any motivation to do anything other than drink Jameson on ice and keep wishing the air con in the hotel room was working a bit better. I have however, managed today to have a swim in the beautiful pool here, and spent half-an-hour or so at the gym with Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Body Workout" playing in my ears. Also got myself a copy of Roald Dahl's "The BFG" and "The Twits" which have inspired me to put pen-to-paper again soon I think... in a fictional sense.
We also played the first gig in Darwin. Won't say too much, cos there's too much to say, but it was great. Sunshine Reggae are the first Indigenous band to have played in Mitchell Street (the main drag), and they were really really well received. I'm proud to have been part of this little victory.
Oh, and our gig was rockin' also. Great sound, great crowd. If Darwin wasn't so far away, I'd definitely be back more often. Of course, if wasn't so far away it'd probably wouldn't be as good...
